A freight forwarder is a company or person that handles the product movement from one place to another.
It has played a significant role in the increasingly developed e-commerce.
They will help the seller take the products that the shopper has purchased to the place that the buyer specified on the order they placed. With goods in their hand, the freight forwarder has keep the seller and buyer connected.
Leelinesourcing have good professional work relationship with freight forwarders as they will not only save you from additional work load but also provide you very reasonable low prices.
All you need to do is place your ordes.
They will handle the rest of work and you will get your products at your doorstep.
Simply, freight forwarder is the 3rd party that responsible for shipping your products in bulk from the source or origin to the destination.
There are many reason you need to hire freight forwarder for your business.
When you order any product samples from various countries you have to pay for every sample and as they packages move in bulk mostly carries companies don’t give important to small samples.
You might have to collect every samples individually through custom duties. The freight forwarder will make the whole package of all the samples and provide you at your doorstep without charging individually.
So In simple word freight forwarder agent knows the best about dealing with your products and for hiring the best freight forwarder you can contact for hiring the best freight forwarder.
Difference between FCL and LCL
FCL stands for Full container load and LCL stand for less than container load.
FCL: You only book FCL when you need the entire Container for yourself. You can use it by completely filling or leaving half empty and depending upon requirements. It comes in 3 basic sizes:
20 feet and 26 cubic meter
40 feet with 54 cubic meter
40 feet high cube with 68 cubic meter
LCL: if they shipping quantity is low then you can go for LCL. In LCL you simple sharing the container space and price as well.
Which one to choose? FCL or LCL?
It is difficult to choose between FCl and LCL as both of them have their advantages and disadvantages mentioned below. To choose either one of them entirely depends on your requirements.
Whether you choose FCL or LCL it is the most important thing you can always contact Leeline sourcing as they have 10 years of experience they can help in making the right choice.You can contact them +8613986152456 or send us an email: [email protected]
The Best method to pack in LCL
One of most important aspect in shipping of the products is packing. When you are using FCL method you got whole container to yourself so you know what kinds of products are being moved with each other, but In LCL you are sharing the container with others businesses as well, so they could be such objects that could potentially damage your product in many ways possible.If you are importing or exporting electronic goods that mostly very sensitive and must be handled very carefully, so honey comb carton or corrugated carton is the best choice.
For heavy products, fragile materials pallet is best option. There could be many types of pallets paper, wood, metal and plastic. All developed countries require International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) packaging before entry is granted. The best to way to avoid fumigation is to use non fumigation pallets. For heavy weight products use good quality pallets so that It can handle the necessary weight.
Control the cost of shipping in China (10 years of Leeline source expert advice)
When it comes to shipping in bulk even the biggest business with great financial supports want to save the cost. One key to save the cost is customize the packing. Let’s take an examples if you cannot full all 100 pieces of product in 1 container you can change the packing to fill up the container. You should utilize the full space of the container in FCL and you should only use LCL for low volume of product.
As sometimes your native freight forwarder company doesn’t know as much to save the extra cost like Chinese companies do in china. Yes, it is difficult to trust any other company that doesn’t belong to your country but it is one of the best way to save cost. You native freight forwarder companies might be easier to deal with initially yet they are not the best in other country like china when it comes to saving the cost and time.
Custom clearance:
Custom clearance is the basically the paper work that had to be done to facilitates the import and export in the country and the client is presented during the custom examination, assessment, payment of the duty and to taking delivery along the documentation. It mainly involves the preparation of all the documents for the calculation of payment of taxes, duties and good and service tax as well.
In simple words we can say that when the delivery enter or leaves the country there is custom tax applied and you have to pay for it so that you have legal rights for that product also known as paper work or custom documentation. The duty on custom clearance varies from product to product and their types. The documents are the proof that you have claimed your right to own the product.
Document needed in custom clearance:
The documents of custom could be of two types import or export depending upon which one you are performing. Import and export documents. That usually consists of bills, sale invoices, certification of origins, licensing for products use or other specific document required by financial institution as per importing country regulation. The custom documents that are prepared varies from the country to country for import and export according to their set of rules and regulation.
So when you are choosing your freight forwarder they must be able to handle your custom clearance but you can choose for yourself separately as well if you want to.
Suggested reading: China Import Agent
Suggested reading: Import Tax From China To US
Suggested reading: China Export Agent
Making custom clearance process smooth
There are two important things that will help you in making custom clearance process smooth and will save you from a lot trouble such as additional cost or time:
1. Load properly your shipping container
It is very important to load your shipping properly and in proper manner. If you don’t load it properly that will lead to unnecessary examinations that will cause delay in your shipping as well as the cost that you don’t want. Improper loading will cause the examination of international shipping as well as the red flag will go off at custom.
2. Details about the shipping to the freight forwarder or custom broker
The second most important thing is to provide the details of your product to your custom broker or freight forwarder. There is a lot of paper work and it get complicated that why there are experienced freight forwarder exist to help and save your time and cost.
